Shirley Souder
Practical therapy with faith-informed insight
- Credentials
- LMFT, LCSW
- Experience
- 43 years
- Licensed in
- Indiana
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Shirley
Shirley Souder is a licensed marriage and family therapist and clinical social worker with 43 years of experience. She combines practical problem-solving with faith-informed ideas when clients want concrete steps forward. Her approach is conversational and direct, focused on what a person can change now to improve daily life and relationships.
Shirley draws on several therapy methods to tailor sessions to each client’s needs. She uses Attachment-Based ideas to look at how relationships shape feelings and responses.
Background and approach
She also works with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice unhelpful thoughts and try different actions. Motivational Interviewing is used when someone needs support deciding and committing to change. Her areas of focus include stress and anxiety, relationship and intimacy concerns, parenting, grief and loss, addictions, and coping with major life changes.
She also addresses issues like self-esteem, communication problems, caregiver stress, and adjustment after loss. Shirley offers guidance on practical skills such as interviewing for a job, managing difficult people, and building emotional forgiveness skills. Shirley is licensed in Indiana as an LMFT - Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and as an LCSW - Licensed Clinical Social Worker.
She speaks English and accepts international clients. Sessions are available via video, phone, live chat, or text messaging. She frames sessions as a collaborative effort.
Clients complete a short matching questionnaire to begin, then schedule according to availability. Payments use a subscription model that can be canceled at any time.
Therapeutic approaches adapted for online care
Shirley often uses Attachment-Based Therapy to look at how early and current relationships affect emotions and reactions. This approach helps people notice patterns in how they connect with others and try different ways of relating to reduce conflict and loneliness. She also uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors to change feelings and outcomes. CBT is useful for anxiety, mood concerns, and practical problem solving.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Shirley treats therapy as a collaboration and will help clients decide which methods fit their goals and preferences. Together they identify small steps to try, then review what changes and what needs to be adjusted as therapy proceeds.
Online sessions can include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text messaging to fit different schedules and comfort levels. These options make it easier to access regular support from home, during breaks, or while traveling. The variety of formats also allows clients to use the way of communicating that helps them open up and practice new skills between sessions.
Attachment-Based Therapy
Looks at how early bonds shaped what you expect from closeness, and how that plays out now with a partner, a parent, or your own children.
Client-Centered Therapy
The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Post-traumatic stress
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 43 years
- Licensed
- Indiana
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Shirley
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point